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Benefits of Meditation, Without the Hard Sell

Google employees meditated during a motivational class in 2012.Credit
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

To the Editor:

In “Let’s End This Meditation Madness” (Op-Ed, Oct. 10), Adam Grant asks others to stop judging him for not meditating and reports that meditation has modest health benefits that can be achieved through other means.

In fact, there are more than a thousand scientific papers documenting the benefits of meditation on health. This effect has been observed on the physiological and clinical levels. Since funding for nonpharmaceutical treatments poses obvious challenges, these studies probably represent a small portion of the positive effects of meditation on physical and emotional well-being.

Yes, such benefits can certainly be achieved through other means. But few are as inexpensive, universally accessible and time-proven as meditation.

Lastly, since a cornerstone of meditation is acceptance of our limitations and the plurality of humankind, I wonder if those judging Mr. Grant have truly embraced the meaning of this millenniums-old practice.

Kindness has penetrated my being thoroughly. I rarely criticize myself or others or get angry. If I do, I stop, apologize and correct myself (this is still a process).

My days are full of synchronicity, and I seldom have one in which events do not fit in place like a puzzle. Meditation has exposed me to a different life from the one I had before. I work at being a good citizen and try to be a peaceful and loving person.

I tend not to say anything to people about meditation. It is their business to find it, but on the other hand, it seems as if we need more advocates of meditation in the world, not fewer.

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It seems as if Adam Grant might be conflating the teachings of mindfulness practice (and meditation) with the evangelical zeal he encounters. Perhaps the friends who are preaching and proselytizing about meditation may be missing the point.

Mindfulness teaches profound acceptance, which would not encourage pressing others (or oneself) to become “converted.” In fact, these concepts — mindfulness/meditation and evangelism — are antithetical.

And it is not simply a tool for stress reduction but a philosophical and spiritual practice that was never intended to become a “quick fix” or a substitute for drugs, psychotherapy or exercise. Rather, it is the teachings of Zen wisdom, and a way of life.

JANET BECKER

New York

The writer is a psychotherapist.

To the Editor:

Seriously, meditation madness? Have the proponents of meditation become zealots?

I live in Los Angeles and Boulder, Colo., and I have never had someone try to sell meditation to me. O.K., maybe three times. In 50 years. Hardly an explosion in popularity.

I can’t wait to hear Adam Grant’s complaint about bell bottoms: “Why are people always trying to get me to wear bell bottoms? Because Jimi Hendrix wears them? Well, he also takes LSD, so I’m sure not going to wear the same pants as someone tripping on psychedelics.”